The Junius or Caedmon manuscript

Title

The Junius or Caedmon manuscript

Shelfmark

MS. Junius 11

Place of origin

English, Canterbury, Christ Church (?)

Date

10th century, late - 11th century, early

added decoration, 12th century, second half

Language

Old English (ca. 450-1100)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Decoration

Important miniatures (one painted in part, p.11, the rest drawings). By two hands, pp. 1–68, and pp. 73–88, the second using coloured inks. Decorative designs, pp. 225, 230.

Fine initials.

Unfinished drawings, pp. 31, 96, added 12th century, second half. Drawings in hard point of uncertain date, pp. 12 and 70.

Acquisition

Received by the Bodleian by 1677

Provenance

Canterbury, Kent, Benedictine cathedral priory of Holy Trinity or Christ Church (?) : (MLGB3: inferred evidence).

James Ussher (1581–1656), archbishop of Armagh. (MLGB3)

Cf. James, ALCD, pp. xxv, 509. The mark noted by James is not a pressmark. E. W. B. Nicholson withdrew his opinion that the MS. was from Winchester (see Bodleian copy of ALCD). (MLGB3)

Franciscus Junius, 1589–1677

Title

The metrical paraphrase of biblical narratives by the pseudo-Caedmon

Shelfmark

MS. Junius 11

Summary

The metrical paraphrase of biblical narratives by the pseudo-Caedmon, containing the Old English poems of Genesis (pp. 1-142), Exodus (pp. 143-71), Daniel (pp. 173-212), and Christ and Satan (pp. 213-29), in four hands: A (pp. 1-212), B (pp. 213-15), C (pp. 216-28), D (p. 229), with normally twenty-six (pp. 1-212) and twenty-seven (pp. 213-29) lines to the page.

There are zoomorphic capitals (see H. P. Mitchell in the Burlington Magazine, 1923, pp. 162-3) on pp. 1, 5, 8, 14, 18, 21, 23, 26, 32, 38, 42, 48, 52, 58, 63, 67, 71, 73, 79, 143, 226. On p. 225 is a unique design to direct the binder.

The back board contains the offset of a fragment of a liturgical MS. written in the second half of the 10th cent. On p. i is 'Ego sum bonus puer quem deus amat' (15th cent.).

Date

Written about A.D. 1000 in England

Language

Old English (ca. 450-1100)

Physical facet

On parchment, with numerous fine illuminated capitals and drawings (see below)

Physical extent

230 pages

Custodial history

Though often ascribed to Winchester the volume may have belonged to Christ Church, Canterbury (M. R. James, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover, p. xxv). Mr. Kenneth Sisam writes that the script is not from Winchester, but that the illumination shows kinship with Canterbury work. Before it came to Junius this MS. was owned by archbishop Ussher (Somner, praef. in Sax. Dict., ° 10) until about 1651.